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Friday, 14 December 2012

Goa struggles as mining ban bites.

With the Supreme Court ruling that the ban on
mining in Goa is to continue, the port of Mormugao says it is in dire financial
straits, struggling meet the salary and pension costs for its 2600 employees
and 4000 pensioners.

“Our financial position is very precarious,” Deputy
Chairman Biplav Kumar told LiveMint. We are currently earning about 10 crore
per month without any iron ore.” Mormugao needs to generate Rs 15 crore a month
just to pay salaries and pensions. “At this rate, our cash surplus will be
depleted in another three months,” he added. The port was earning almost Rs 40
crore a month before mining was banned, when iron ore contributed 80% of the
port’s cargo- 50 million tonnes per year at the peak. In contrast, no bulk
carriers have called Mormugao since September this year.

With a 30 per cent revenue gap, the situation is so
dire that the Goa
Government plans to export ore that has been dumped at pit heads over decades.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the Hindu Business Line that these dumps
would be cleaned up over the next three to four months “taking due care of the
legal formalities. We have huge ore dumps – some of six-decade vintage –
dotting the State with tiny land mass and population. We need to clean this
mess up,” he said.

Mormugao is now trying to move to other cargoes
like food grains, pharmaceuticals and granite. The Food Corporation of India
may export wheat through the State, and granite from Karnataka is being
exported through the port after two decades, although there are complaints that
infrastructure bottlenecks are holding things up.

“These are
the small things we are trying to do. Then, again, this will not give us that
much money compared to what we were earning from iron ore,” said Kumar.
“Besides, there are challenges in getting new cargo. The condition of the roads
connecting the port with its hinterland in southern Maharashtra and northern
Karnataka is very bad.”

The port is also getting ready two schemes to shed employees.
An ‘Extraordinary leave scheme’ will allow them to take up jobs outside the
port for up to six years and then return. Under another- a voluntary retirement
scheme- employees who quit will be paid 45 days salary for each completed year
of service. Kumar says the proposals are with the Shipping Ministry for
clearance.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Parrikar
is quietly critical of the ban that led to the crisis. “The irregularities (if
any) were going on for years. Suddenly the pendulum swings to another extreme,”
he said, talking about concerns about illegal mining in the State that led to
the ban.

AJ Peters, Secretary of the All India
Port and Dock Workers Federation, seems to agree. “Mormugao
port is going through very difficult times, and a solution to this can come
only from the Supreme Court which is hearing the cases related to mining in
India,” he says.